We all know that eBay split with it’s money printing machine (aka PayPal) a few years ago.

It never made sense to me that eBay never integrated it’s own payment processing system like Amazon Pay or AliPay. A simple credit card accepting option offered to all sellers instead of having to be forced to have to use only PayPal.

Well, today eBay announced a partnership with Adyen, A payment platform that I’ve never heard of. Honestly they should have just partnered with Stripe because it’s simply AWESOME.

Anyways, the integration will start (for a select few) in the second half of 2018, to be fully integrated by the time the PayPal partnership (aka the monopoly) ends in 2021.

Although I think that eBay needs serious and immediate internal re-construction. And this news is way too late (and will take long to actually work), I’m going to stay with a positive tone since this is post because it’s actually good news.

Here is copy the email announcement:

Dear eBay Seller,

eBay is happy to announce plans to further improve the customer experience by intermediating payments on our Marketplace platform. In doing so, eBay will manage the payments flow, simplifying the end-to-end experience for both buyers and sellers. We have signed an agreement with Adyen, a leading global payments processor, to become our primary payments processing partner. PayPal, a long-time eBay partner, will be a payments option at checkout for eBay buyers.

You do not need to take any action at this time. The transition to full payments intermediation will be a multi-year journey.

Over the past three years, eBay has transformed its business to drive the best choice, most relevance and most powerful selling platform. Building out our payments capabilities is the next step in that strategy.

Payments intermediation will bring significant benefits for eBay sellers. You can expect a simplified pricing structure, more predictable access to funds, and most sellers can expect their costs of payments processing to be reduced. We’re also working on ways to provide sellers a central place to track and manage their business, which can soon include payments information.

By offering buyers more choice in how they pay and expanding payment options into more geographies, eBay believes sellers will be able to reach more buyers and improve conversion.

The transition to full payments intermediation will be a multi-year journey. eBay will begin intermediation on a small scale in North America starting in the second half of 2018, expanding in 2019 under the terms of the Operating Agreement with PayPal. In 2021, we expect to have transitioned a majority of Marketplace customers to the new payments experience.

Again, you do not need to take any action at this time. As eBay gets closer to the initial phase of its intermediation efforts, we will share more details about this process and next steps for sellers. In the meantime, please read the eBay Inc announcement for further information. For any immediate questions or to share feedback, please email paymentsinfo@ebay.com.

We’ve just received the Paypal Debit card that has the EMV chip in it.

Because of the extra security and privacy that EMV chips have, I’ve made sure I upgraded all my cards as soon as it was available, however, the Paypal card took over 2 years since the implementation of EMV chips arrived in the US.

However, it’s finally here with an extra benefit: The added convenience of tap-to-pay option where available. Pretty cool.

Here are all the benefits:

If you didn’t get your card yet and you have the old Paypal Business Debit card, you can always go to the debit card page within your Paypal account and replace the old card with a new one.

Since I’ve started blogging years ago (it feels like ages ago), I had no reason to separate my business thoughts from my personal life. Back then, I was flying solo. Meaning I was the business, I was my own brand, I did everything on my own. Etc.

But now, I’ve ventured into so many projects, started a New York based business, got married, made serious life changes like becoming vegan, and many other things.

Did I mention I am also older than when I started all of this? Which also comes with a few health changes.

Due to all of that, I think the time had come to separate the 2 Alexs’.

Business Alex will live partially here and will concentrate on the eBay, e-commerce, marketing ideas, news, and thoughts.

The other business Alex will soon move to a new domain with more of my own ideas, love for gadgets, computer science, bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and much more.

As in for “personal” Alex, well, I’m getting ready to reveal the all new blog about my personal life. I’ll talk about my adventures, health things, food, my angry opinions, and good thoughts, charity, and share some of my personal life events.

Look for the new home of “personal” Alex all over my social channels tomorrow,.